Wednesday, September 7, 1774. The first prayer of the Continental Congress.

The First Prayer of the Continental Congress was delivered.

O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!

Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Reverend Jacob Duché

Rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

September 7, 1774, 9 o’clock a.m.

The effect of this opening prayer was profound. 

The Reverend Jacob Duché was an Anglican Rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He was the chaplain to the First Continental Congress.

Ordained in London, he'd go on to support the Revolution by agreeing to support a resolution to cross the name King George III, the head of the Church of England, from the prayers to be read in the prayers of the church, something while bold, also demonstrated the hypocrisy of the Anglican religious position.  He was arrested by British General William Howe in 1777, but recanted and became a Loyalist, writing Washington at one point urging him to lay down arms.  Pennsylvanian hypocritically convicted him of high treason whereupon he feld to England.  He returned to North America, following a stroke, in 1792.  He passed away, a muddled record behind him, in 1798.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 6, 1774. The Worcester Revolt.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, Blog Mirror, Colonial North America, Massachusetts

Sunday, August 28, 1774. Mother Seton.

 

St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton SC was born in the Colony of New York, in the city by that name.  Her prominent parents were protestants, as the overwhelming majority of those in the thirteen lower colonies were, with her mother being an Anglican daughter of an Anglican priest.  She married William Magee Seton, a wealthy 25 year old businessman, at when she was 19.  Both she and William were devout members of Trinity Episcopal Church.  Upon the death of her father in law, the family took in their six young in laws which added to their five children.

The undeclared war with Republican France that was fought on the seas between 1798 and 1800 rendered the merchant family bankruptcy, showing as an aside why the later War of 1812 was unpopular in New England, which depended upon trade with England.  In 1803 William was sent to Italy to convalesce due to tuberculosis but died in the British city of Leghorn where he was quarantine.  She was introduced to Catholicism while in Europe by Flippo and Antonia Filicchi, her husband's business partners, and converted in New York on March 14, 1805.  She began to become involved in education and then became a nun, founding a congregation dedicated to the care of children and the poor.

She died in 1821 at age 46.   Two of her daughters predeceased her.  A third, Catherine Seton, entered the Sisters of Mercy and is being considered as a candidate for a cause of Sainthood.

She was canonized in 1975.

Last edition:

Saturday, August 27, 1774. Resolution of the First North Carolina Provincial Congress.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, American Revolution, North Carolina

Blog Mirror: The Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the Battle of Vinegar Hill

 

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 and the Battle of Vinegar Hill